Sacred Heart featured in Metal Architecture’s latest issue

Metal Architecture’s February issue features the Convent of the Sacred Heart’s recently completed Athletics and Wellness Center, in an article entitled “Steel joins school gym design.”

The exterior of the Athletics and Wellness Center presents a dynamic combination of brick recesses, projections, corbeling, and wall thickness, which are complemented by painted steel accents that enhance the center’s neighborhood-appropriate scale. The building’s steel entry canopy and 10-foot-tall balanced doors are also highlighted in the article.

Inside, the project includes an extensive program, with both a competition-sized swimming pool and an NCAA regulation-sized volleyball and basketball court. A striking truss system was one of many design approaches devised to ensure that both facilities could be included and fully structurally supported. Uniquely, these trusses comprise 93% recycled content; the top and bottom chords are T-shaped members, created by cutting standard W sections lengthwise.